In October this year, Japan's seasonally adjusted industrial production increased 1.6 percent over the previous month, while the original index indicated a decrease of 4.5 percent compared to the same month last year. The country's seasonally adjusted industrial production has been trending down on month-on-month basis since March this year, with the exception of the month-on-month increase recorded in June.
According to the revised Indices of Industrial Production report published by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, in October the Japanese iron and steel production index decreased 5.3 percent year on year, while Japan's seasonally adjusted iron and steel production index fell 1.3 percent in October compared to September. Meanwhile, in October Japanese producers' iron and steel shipments rose by 1.9 percent and iron and steel inventories were down by 2.7 percent, both compared to the previous month.
In October, the seasonally adjusted crude steel production index including semi-finished steel in Japan decreased by 2.9 percent compared to the previous month and was down by 5.6 percent on year-on-year basis. Producers' crude steel shipments in October were down by 1.3 percent compared to the previous month and down 14.2 percent compared to the same month last year.